It’s not easy sellling technology to the Americans

The Sidney Morning Herald has an interesting story on the skills it takes to sell technology to the American market. The article points out that “[s]mall [foreign] start-up companies easily get lost in a sea of possibilities. Differences in business customs and culture can see them wasting time and money on leads that take them nowhere.” Thus, “one Australian company […] had identified what it thought would be a great US distributor. Left to get on with the job of selling, the distributor stole the Australian company’s intellectual property” – not exactly the way things were supposed to go.

The Register reports that “[m]obile calls are replacing fixed-line usage across Europe, according to a new report from Analysys, but people aren’t talking more, they’re just using fixed-lines less.”

Slashdot writes that Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) yesterday introduced H.R. 3155, the Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007, in Congress. The bill contains a provision for punishing would-be copyright infringers even if they didn’t actually manage to complete the infringing action.

In the Guardian, Kieren McCarthy, ICANN’s general manager of public participation, points out that “[c]hanges in the way websites are named could have a massive impact on the internet – and cause controversy along the way.”

According to the Mercury News, “Advanced Micro Devices has not held settlement talks in its antitrust complaint against rival chip maker Intel. Tom McCoy, Advanced Micro’s general counsel, made the disclosure on a conference call Monday while discussing the decision by the European Union to bring a formal case against Intel for allegedly breaking antitrust laws.”